Author's Note

Okay, action time…sort of. Let's see if I can pull this off. It's a big update. Also, upon popular request, the secret is revealed! Dun…dun…dun! Thanks a ton for the enthusiastic reviews and notes. Hope y'all enjoy this latest installment and for my American fans, I hope you are have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend. Read on and be entertained…

McFadden-

Chapter 6: The Haunting Truth

The night air was much quieter than it had been in previous weeks. Not a gust of wind was evident anywhere. Abigail would have to be extra cautious on top of all their preparations. If either one of them made the slightest move in the wrong direction they would definitely be heard. Caulder's information had led them to an old shipyard that seemed to be condemned; a perfect place for vampires to commune. Abby lingered in the distance, still and crouch like a cat in the attack position. She counted about 15 or 16 vampires grouped together. They moved around in packs, like wolves. Caulder had moved from her to go around the side for a closer view. Suddenly, all the vampires grew quiet and stood still. One of the rusty doors to the hangers rolled up and both Sander and Dalton strode out together. Their canines gleamed as they smiled in the moonlight. Those cocky sons of bitches! All Abby wanted to do was rip them limb from limb and watch each piece incinerate individually. Now, she just had to wait for the signal from Caulder. If they didn't move fast, they were going to be discovered. Just then, Abby heard his voice in her ear overshadowed by static.

"Abigail…you take out the left side, I'm going to run across behind them on the right."

Bad idea! Bad idea! They would be giving Dalton and Sander a perfect escape route. If she followed that path, her time would be taken up by the vamps on the outskirts of the group. She'd have to fight them off one by one. That would take up too much time. She hissed at him over the receiver in an angry whisper.

"If we do that, we'll get slaughtered Caulder! I saw we attack right in the middle and take out their 'family jewels.' Fuck the rest of the Goth-wannabes. We can com back and take care of them later."

Apparently, Caulder had chosen to ignore her request. She saw him charge out from behind a hundred gallon oil drum. Abby closed her eyes as the fury built up within her. This wasn't going to be good… Running from her hiding spot towards the fray she screamed in anger.

"Fuck!"

They had already begun to ascend on Caulder when Abby pulled out her bow and fired her first shot into the back of a younger vampire. Keeping the others at bay didn't start off as a problem, but Abby was trying to keep an eye on the brothers as they scrambled for refuge. In her distraction, a particularly nasty looking blood sucking parasite tried to cut her neck with a knife, but missed and ended up slicing her deep in her left shoulder. She turned just in time to see him burst into flames. As they disintegrated in air, she caught the view of Caulder with one of King's electronic pistols. The first thing he noticed was that she was bloody, her own blood too, from the looks of it. He wondered if she was seriously in need of a doctor, but she didn't seem to be slowing down any from her injury. Abby vented her anger with him by killing every vampire she can in contact with, each time while sending a murderous glance his way. Caulder knew that he wouldn't be in good standing with her after this was over. One girl with extra long nails used them to claw at Abby while she swiftly gave the bitch a roundhouse to the head. The dagger at the tip of her boot penetrated the girl's skull and she exploded from the inside out. Feeling her back, Abigail was aware of how her back stung and felt like raw me from the scratches. She could also feel her energy diminishing. Quickly, she looked up and saw that only Dalton was there. Sander had scampered off, leaving his brother to clean up the mess.

"Ahh Abby…Long time, no see baby…You look well"

She hated the sound of his sniveling voice. For a moment she wished he was a mortal so that she could just torment him, but given his immortality, she knew his strength was great.

"Go fuck yourself Dalton! Where that pussy brother of yours? Already ran to hide I see. Well I'm sorry, but I'm not up for playing games tonight."

Caulder had come to Abby's side and Dalton narrowed his eyes at him, and then looked back at her. He raised one of his sharp eyebrows.

"Where's the big goon that's always attached to your side? You guys have a fight? Or did he die already? Either answer would bring me such joy Whistler,"

"Eat me, you fucking incestuous freak…"

Dalton ran a meticulously manicured nail down the side of her cheek, drawing with it, a line of blood. Abby didn't even flinch, just continued to stare at him maliciously, her fist clenched tightly around the bow at her side.

"Ohh Abby, you know I'd love to. Don't make the offer unless you intend to keep it though sweetheart…nobody likes a tease. You know how long I've waited for this."

He brought his blood covered finger up to his mouth, his long fang emerging. His tongue lapped up the remains as his shivered in desire. Abby tensed angrily at the sight. Dalton flashed her a sick smile and his eyes darted downward to her compound bow.

"Get any better with that hellish thing."

Her voice came laced with sarcasm.

"Yes…please let me show you."

He laughed and waved her request away with his hand. His languid gesture infuriated her. She wanted nothing more than to take him out right there, but a noise stopped her. A shot range out in the distance, making both Caulder and Abby duck. She knew that sound. She looked behind herself. In the distance they saw Dash driving up in the Escalade while hanging out of the window with her revolver filled with Lucky Sevens. Turning back, she discovered that Dalton has disappeared into the darkness. The black vehicle pulled up next to them and Dash hopped out letting Abby lean on him as she climbed with much difficulty into the back. Caulder tried to assist her as well, but she refused to let him touch her. He didn't get a foot in the car before she started with her vicious tongue lashing.

Back in the Hideout, King had moved himself down the equipment room with help from Dash before he left to assist Caulder and Abby, should they need him. How he anxiously waited for her to return. He had propped his legs up on the bench and watched old minidisks of previous kills. If he couldn't be out there fighting them, then he could live vicariously in the moment through these. Ahh… the glory of new technology. Twenty minutes of blood, guts, and carnage had him all wrapped up in his past festivities until King heard a rustle from outside the steel door. Abigail's yelling was muffled, but King could clearly hear her screaming at Caulder.

"I'm fine, god damnit! Let me go!"

Abigail had come staggering into the door, covered in blood. She gave a powerful shove and sent Caulder falling back and tumbling out of the doorway. After slamming it shut so that he couldn't come back in; she leaned against the back of the door, breathing heavily, and thoroughly exhausted. King hastily stood up and hopped to her side making her sit down on the bench.

"What the fuck happened to you, babe? They didn't hurt you did they?"

Abby cringed as she straightened out her muscles. Her bones and joints popped under the pressure and strain. She moaned again and turned to King.

"A scratch…that's all."

"Bullshit, a scratch! You look like Carrie after the fucking prom."

To Abby, A scratch meant a deep cut. Judging by the amount of blood drying on her, she had a few. Hell, he couldn't even tell if they weren't life threatening. Whatever the status, they surely needed to be disinfected. Apparently she knew this too, because the first thing she reached for was the First aid kit and took out the peroxide. King ran, got her a towel, and wet it. Abby peeled off her shirt that was stuck to her back with an agonizing scream. King was horrified to see the flesh hanging there.

"Fucking Christ Abby! Tell me why you look like you've been mauled by a tiger?"

Between the hissing breaths and occasional curses, Abby began to describe her night play by play. King helped clean her cuts, wincing along with her as he poured alcohol here and there. For the most part of her commentary, he was quiet. That was until she explained how she got the cuts on her shoulder and back

"I'll fucking kill Caulder!"

"King, he was the one who killed the one who tried to slit my throat."

King shook his head.

"Well he didn't do it quickly enough! The blade still caught you in the shoulder. At least please tell me something good came of this. Please tell me you got those bastard twins."

He looked at her pleadingly. He hated to see her in pain, especially when he knew it could've been avoided had he been there instead. Looking at her face, he realized that she was answering his question with a look. They didn't even kill one of them. King felt her tense as he questioned her why with his eye.

"About that…it's a very long story King."

There was her nervous laughter. He wasn't going to let her pull the dodge again. From giving her a firm look; Abby knew that she had to come clean about her secret. King just sat there and patiently waited for her to start.

"I've got all night Whistler…spill."

She took a deep breath and cautiously proceeded.

"Well…Sander and Dalton, I knew them."

This was a revelation for King. He was out and out confused.

"How the hell do you know those two fuck-asses?"

"They…umm… they used to be Nightstalkers."

There she said it. She waited for an outburst, but none came. King was just numb. How the hell could Abigail, the one person he trusted with his life, hide this! He couldn't breathe. All those years that he'd spent in his living hell; all those nights that passed in the company of those bragging assholes and not once had they mentioned that they used to be Nightstalkers themselves. Every emotion possible came flooding back through him and Abby saw his muscles strain. Suddenly she wondered if it was a good idea that she even told him. She was sure that, had she been anyone else right then, he would have hit her.

"What the fuck! And just when the fuck were you planning on telling me huh? Never! I cannot believe you Whistler. I trusted you! I've told you everything. EVERYTHING! I have never hidden any secret from you. You know every detail of my life…even all the times Danica blood-raped me and exactly how she did it. No matter how humiliating it was, I still at the very least came to you and told you all about it!"

Abby not only felt like she got hit with a Mac truck but her heart was broken because she had hurt him. But, all this time she felt like she was protecting him by keeping that from him, and that fact angered her because he couldn't see that.

"That was years before you came into view King! Five years, in fact! They were like the black sheep of the family that strayed from the flock. That's what makes them so dangerous to us. Sander and Dalton knew everything, every angle we would've pulled out at them. That why we've evaded them for so long. Now, thanks to our recent advanced in the system, we actually have a fighting chance against them. Imagine our surprise when we found out right after you started your detoxification that you were affiliated with them. So we thought it best if we left that minor detail out. Once Drake took out…well…when Caulder came, I had to tell him about the brothers. It was a technicality, someone else beside you, needed to know the truth just as a precaution. I just didn't say anything till now because I didn't know how it would affect you."

King stood up, towering over her, but Abby also got up as he started to yell, advancing on her until her back hit the cement brick wall.

"Minor! Abby that's not fucking minor! What the fuck? I thought all the Nightstalker's secrets were out in the open for me. What other kind of skeletal shit do you have hiding in the closet huh?"

She took a deep frustrated breath. This was getting way out of hand. She didn't want to lose her best friend because of something like this.

"Look, everyone has their deep and dark secrets of their past. Dash doesn't know either. The secret nearly died with Drake destruction. This secret just happens to be one that we share…"

"Yeah, no shit! You want to talk about a dark past, look at my past Abby! Oops! I forgot…you already know everything about my past! I just didn't know we had that particular part in common. I can't believe you kept this from me even after you found out from me that, next to Dan and Asher, they were the worst of their kind. I could've helped you before this happened."

All of her patience was drawing thin and about to fly out of the window from being cornered this way. She understood his anger and even deserved his yelling, but why couldn't he just understand that this whole fiasco with the brothers happened years ago when she, herself, was just another rookie.

"I can handle it King."

His eyes grew wide and wild and his body language more outlandish.

"Oh, of course you can! You're doing a bang up job so far!"

In a sudden fit of rage, King completely swiped his muscular arm across the top of the desk. Everything, including some weapons, data, and even one of their laptops, fell to the ground. Abby stared, dumbfounded at the sight of the sparking electronics. She looked up at him. The flicker of wrath died down in his eyes and was replaced by hurt and betrayal. He pulled her into a hard hug and held her tightly. King didn't care about the blood or the grime covering her, it was all protocol. Whispering with a raspy voice into her ear, his nails dug slightly into Abby's back too close to the other nail marks for comfort. He was so livid and the pressure he was causing on her back was killing her.

"Don't ever do that again. I don't want to have your life jeopardized because of some scandalizing secret of the past. You're too important to me God damnit."

King's hold on her seemed to soften into an embrace as he appeared to hold onto her for dear life. In return, she wrapped her sticky arms around his waist and rested against his body, feeling him as he tensed and relaxed, then he pulled away. When he spoke, his voice was cold.

"Why don't you go and get changed, you look like shit."

Even though his words stung, she knew he was probably right. She ran upstairs and changed into a oversized shirt that wouldn't bother her back so much and opted for some track pants. Going down to the kitchen, she realized she was in desperate need of coffee. While she poured a cup, she noticed that it was way too quiet in the hideout. She knew Dash was outside washing soot from the car, but she had no idea where Caulder was, nor did she know where King was for that matter; and that scared her. Pulling out a chair, she rested her elbow on the table and closed her eyes, willing the pain and stress to go away. Her tension didn't ease up in the slightest. In fact, it escalated with the distinct sound of bodies slamming up against the wall. She just sighed. King had found Caulder. Deciding to stay out of it, Abigail picked up the accent section of the newspaper. Right then, the remote control to the television flew in the doorway, hitting the counter and shattering, followed by a holster landing in the sink. Abby wrapped her hand around the coffee mug to protect it from the onslaught of debris. She continued to read the paper, completely unfazed by King's outburst. As far as she was concerned, she had her verbal punishment and now it was Caulder's turn. He didn't really deserve it, but that didn't stop him from getting various objects thrown in his direction.

"You fucker!"

This time a shoe flew across the kitchen, narrowly missing her head in the process. Judging from its speed, had it made contact, it might have knocked her out. King walked through the doorway with all of his muscles taut and ready to throw a punch. Needless to say, his mouth was still going.

"You were in on it too. How could you dare let her get injured? She could've fucking gotten killed you mindless fuck! And how could you both keep lying to me all this time? You know what, next time you two ever get in a bind, don't expect me to be the one to save your asses!"

Abby had finally had enough of his accusations and empty threats. It wasn't like she even had much of a choice in keeping the secret. She slammed the paper down along with her fist on the table. The impact was hard enough to break her coffee mug and have the scalding liquid burn her arm. King froze, seeing Abby completely silent. The only indication that she felt the blistering skin was the fact that her arms were shaking slightly.

"Damnit King, that's enough! You're mad…I get that. I wasn't anymore injured than I would've been had you been there. Okay, maybe not, but it's not Caulder's fault for keeping the secret, it was mine…So lay off! You can't very well be bitter forever. If you do that then you may as well just go rejoin their side because that'll make you no better than they are! It's your choice!"

Complete silence filled the air as Abby stormed out of the room, muttering curses and gingerly wiping her reddened arms. King's shoulders finally slumped and he ran out, trying to catch her and forgetting about Caulder altogether.